Branch Activist

So you’ve just joined the Labour Party? Welcome! You’ve joined a movement of hundreds of thousands of people committed to fighting for a better, fairer Britain. You might be feeling a bit overwhelmed or unsure where to go next.

Relax…

There is lots of information on this website and also the Labour Party website where you will find the New Members Hub.

Our new member video will help introduce you to the party and get an idea of some of the exciting opportunities available to you as our newest member.

Branch officers are also ready and waiting to welcome you to our branch meetings where you can meet other local members and start participating in the Party.

The Labour Party has a vision for a country that works for the many, not just the privileged few. And it has a plan to make this vision a reality. Explore the policies and its campaigns to find out where the Labour Party stands on the most important issues.

As we came out of the Women’s Conference, other Conference delegates had started to arrive at the Metropole and there was a buzz of excitement. Just walking past Len McCluskey in serious conversation with Angela Eagle and spotting others was exciting.

That evening, I attended a very interesting meeting of Labour International. There were Labour party members there from all over Europe – Berlin, Italy, Spain and Brussels. Roger Casale, Director and Founder of the New Europeans gave the first Harry Shindler lecture. Harry Shindler is now in his 90s and is determined to get the right to vote for ex-Pats and they really aren’t all Tory voters – not at all. My cousin runs a branch in Berlin and the vast majority of members supported Jeremy Corbyn. Here is an article about Harry Shindler: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-13347616. I personally think it is wrong that so many people , who have lived outside the UK for more than 15 years, do not have the right to vote in any general election whether in their home country – the UK or in the country where they are living. My cousin has worked in Europe as a lawyer for many years but visits the UK often and has family here and yet will be unable to vote in the European referendum which will directly affect her.

The first day of the Conference dawned nice and bright and I emerged to a political discussion at breakfast in the hotel I was staying in. We had to queue for G4S to scan our passes and search our bags but it didn’t take too long. There were many many stalls
to look at before the Conference began. Influenced by the meeting last night, my favourite was labour in Europe where they could take your photo with a message and send it out on Twitter. It was retweeted by Luke Holland almost immediately so I knew it had got out there! They could also put it on the front of a newspaper with articles of your choice. Good fun!!!

The whole morning was given over to learning the lessons from the election and setting the agenda for Conference . As you can see, the first panel was very unfortunate in that it contained all men apart fro one woman who was sat on the edge. This led to some heckling by women. You can watch the Chair of Conference, Jim Kennedy here: https://youtu.be/dB66BmXX1kY Conference had only been going for about an hour when a card vote was called re the Conference Arrangement Committee Report. CAC were accused of treating Constituency Labour parties unfairly and undemocratically and not allowing certain CLPs over a formality called ’reference backs’.

There were Merit ward Presentations for long serving members and I left to go to a fringe meeting as Margaret Beckett was talking about ‘Learning the Lessons’ from May’s elections. Just down the road at the Odeon cinema, I attended my last Europe meeting ‘Rally for Yes!’, where among the people who spoke: Alan Johnson MP, Frances O’Grady – General Sec of the TUC, Glenis Willmott MEP, Lisa Nandy MP and Chuka Umunna MP. It was good to see there are so many pro-Europeans in the Labour Party with excellent arguments why we should stay in.

The afternoon saw more eulogising of Harriet Harman as well as a discussion on Better Politics and I left for a walk round the Lanes after Kezia Dugdale, Leader of the Scottish Labour Party spoke.

But it was the evening events that proved the highlight of the Conference for me. I first attended a meeting of the Keir Hardie society where their book ‘What would Keir Hardie Say?’ Jeremy Corbyn had written a chapter as had Melissa Benn and both were in attendance. It was of course standing room only and Hilary Benn was standing at the back too. It was a fascinating meeting and I managed to get a copy signed by Jeremy himself. It is well worth a read and, as a result of this meeting, I am seriously thinking of setting up a Birmingham branch
of the Keir Hardie society. People shared their memories of the influence Keir Hardie had on their grandparents and of course, the meeting took place on the weekend that was the 100th anniversary of his death. Watch Jeremy Corbyn at the Keir Hardie society meeting here: https://youtu.be/FnQ7xU30C4k

Once that meeting was over, I had just enough time to visit the West Midlands Reception and grab a Naan to keep me going. I didn’t see anyone I recognised so carried on to the LabourList rally ‘Winning Again’ at the Grand Hotel. Again standing room only but I did find myself standing next to a Birmingham Labour councillor. Eddie Izzard came on first and did his funny stuff. As a memb er of Progress, he did mention the importance of winning elections a lot. He was followed by Tristram Hunt who addressed us all as ‘Comrades” – a little witheringly I felt – and went on to talk about radical movements of the past. Other speakers included Rupa Huq MP and Claire Kober MP. But the best and most rousing speeches came from Ian Lavery MP (ex NUM) and Owen Jones. We even sang the Red Flag – yes in the Grand Hotel in Brighton.

They were doing a reasonably cheap meal that evening in the Grand Hotel and sat and chatted to a very interesting Unite official from Derby who was talking about how she had been round engaging new members in her branch Labour Party. We happened to be sitting next to Margaret Beckett as well. I wonder if she heard when I was telling my cousin how wonderful Jeremy Corbyn had been!!

What a fantastic start I had to my first Labour Party Conference – a long walk along the Hove and then Brighton seafront bathed in sunlight, a cloudless blue sky and the most wonderful white Georgian architecture. I was off to the Labour Party Womens’ Conference at the Hilton Brighton Metropole Hotel. I was surprised by the tightness of security with huge concrete vehicle security barriers outside all three of the main venues and our passes were duly scanned.

The Womens’ conference was opened by Kate Green now Shadow Minister for Women and Equalities. She welcomed everyone by saying ‘ We want to hear from all of you today. Make your voices heard!” This conference epitomised the change from ‘New’ Labour to Corbyn Labour as it began with the old (sorry New) Labourites grandstanding and ended with the voices of ordinary women being heard and a magnificent speech by Jeremy Corbyn. It was not without its ‘atmospheres’ and, although I had never been to a Labour party conference before, I got an inkling of how ordinary women talking about their very real concerns, hardship and poverty might in the past have been cold shouldered and hushed up. There were definitely some icy moments.

Yvette Cooper was next on, making a fitting tribute /eulogy to the work done by Harriet Harman and this was followed by a film showing how Harriet had helped many women up the greasy pole. She actually mentioned our own Jess Phillips and how she had acknowledged the help and inspiration of Harriet harman.

There was a lot of talk about ‘winning elections’ which was the euphemism of the day for ‘Why have we got Jeremy Corbyn for leader? and how, despite there being more women in the shadow cabinet than men, it was outrageous there were no women in the highest positions i.e Home Secretary, Foreign Secretary, Chancellor. I thought from what was being said that Jeremy Corbyn was going to get a really rough ride when he turned up for his speech in the afternoon,

There were many questions from the floor from domestic abuse, disability,female genital mutilation, refugees, poverty and inequality to welcoming new members but as not enough time was given for these in the morning, more time was allotted in the afternoon and everyone who wanted to question was heard.

Tom Watson was invited to attend for the morning session and did so. We were there to discuss the ‘new politics’ although it wasn’t made totally clear what that ‘new politics’ was – something more consensual, more engaging and direct, more inclusive – was what I guessed it meant. Kezia Dugdale, leader of the Scottish Labour party, addressed us in the afternoon.

Several things came out of this conference for me:

we need to do a lot more to welcome new members and make them feel at home and active within the Labour party;

for this womens’ conference to have any clout, it needs to be able to put forward motions to conference . Hopefully, like the ‘withering away of the state’, the need for a women’s conference will soon be a thing of the past;

it is important now we have a lot of new members to be clearer in our communications re. various issues and not using acronyms;

All women shortlists need to be supported as they are needed to ensure that womens’ representation in Westminster improves;

we need more women taking an active part at constituency level, as councillors and in parliament. To this end, the Labour Women’s Network is a members’ organisation run by volunteers. It exists to train and support Labour women wanting to participate fully in politics. You can find out more at www.lwn.org.uk

Question – Is it more important that there are women in the ‘highest’ positions or that there are policies in place that really support women?

He thanked Kezia Dugdale for her speech and said that he and Tom Watson were heading to Scotland straight after the conference and would be visiting Scotland at least once a month. He thanked all his supporters especially the many women MPs who had given him much more friendly advice than the men in his first two weeks as Leader of the opposition. He thanked Yvette Cooper and Liz Kendall for their companionship through the election campaign. Jeremy also talked about Andy Burnham’s unswerving commitment to comprehensive education and the NHS. He paid homage to Harriet Harman’s work on advancing the cause of women’s equality and said unequivocally that the gender pay gap has got to go.

Retention of new membership

Jeremy thanked all those who had voted in the leadership election. Membership has doubled since may and 74,500 of those new women are members. (Click link to see video: https://youtu.be/fSPSfTa6VZ4). We have to change the culture of branch, constituency and the way events are run locally to keep the engagement of the new voters. We’ve got to be open, active, welcoming, do things differently, use social media a lot more, we’ve got to be out there taking the arguments to the people. (Click on link: https://youtu.be/iYSK95Qy8XQ ).The main principles on which to fight the 2020 election will be an inclusive health service, inclusive welfare state and a society that prevents anyone falling into destitution. Proud that there is now a Shadow Minister for Mental Health.

Women

Jeremy stated that you have got to fight for equal rights for women otherwise our democracy does not exist. He will continue Women Only shortlists but go further and give more support to women candidates for selection and after they have been selected. The Labour Party will also hit Austerity hard. It is women who suffer most because of Austerity. The Labour Party will invest and grow their way to prosperity, at the same time closing the equality gap.

These were some of the Press Photographers who seemed to want a shot of perhaps a Corbyn bald head (he actually has a good head of hair so they were probably disappointed) but just in case they decided to publish unflattering pics, I took a shot of them!!!!! We have to challenge the media at every turn!!!

Given the recent announcement of the devastating cuts to policing of around £130 million over the next five years this meeting is a timely opportunity to come and chat to the Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) – David Jamieson and Hall Green MP Roger Godsiff in relation to the impact that these cuts might have on neighbourhood policing in Hall Green and surrounding wards.

The 2,500 jobs that will be lost under the current proposals outlined by West Midlands Police will affect mainly affect PCSOs and Mr Jamieson has suggested that as a result of such losses it will be difficult to maintain a “quality” service. West Midlands Police outlined the measures – which will mainly affect community support officers – as part of its efforts to save £130m. He also suggests that further cuts of up to £30m were likely to follow. West Midlands Chief Constable Chris Sims said: “We will continue to offer the protection we currently offer but people will notice the service is delivered differently. “There will be less visibility on the streets, fewer bobbies on the beat.”

How will such proposals affect areas like Hall Green?

How will community safety be affected?

Will further reductions mean a scaling back of neighbourhood policing?

The former Reddings Lane petrol station has been a source of concern to your Councillors for some time.

This is a privately owned site that has been poorly maintained by the owners and as a result we have seen regular fly tipping and anti-social behaviour. Despite the efforts of residents and the Council we are no closer to resolving this and there is no imminent likelihood the site will be redeveloped in the short term.

To improve the area we are instead looking at the scope for creating a community garden and improving this space for all. This could help address the visual impact it has on the local area and discourage further anti-social activity.

Your local Councillors and Council officers will be in attendance to consider options and ways this could be taken forward. If this is an issue you are concerned about and would be willing to get involved please come along.

•I will support the future running of High- field Hall as a community building for all

•I will work hard to keep Hall Green clean and tidy so that it retains its character.

About Sam BurdenI have lived in Hall Green and worked in Birmingham city centre for 15 years. I be- lieve that Hall Green is a great place to live and as a local resident myself I use all of the local services just like anyone else. When the trains are late or the rubbish doesn’t get collected quite on time I notice just the same as you do!

Hall Green library
I am a huge fan of Hall Green library and asone of the busiest libraries in the City I know how popular it is with residents and local schools. I am committed to doing all I can to retain a library in Hall Green despite the huge budget challenges being faced by Bir- mingham Council.

Keeping Hall Green tidy
From protecting grass verges to tidying up litter we all need to play our part in keeping our community tidy. I am regularly involved in local litter picks as well as highlighting damaged verges. I am currently investigat- ing the installation of a camera at a site in Hall Green where we have had regular fly tipping but it is a constant battle.